Fring is out, using Skype on a Symbian phone is now possible
-
-
Fring, a British VoIP start-up that we interviewed three months ago, is one of the company banking on the (always) delayed Skype for Symbian-powered cellphones. It recently released its mobile client, a peer-to-peer platform that enables Skype and Google Talk users to make phone calls for free from their handsets. Cool stuff, same promise than competitors, and what is more interesting, reports the Register, lies in its business models, which is not the usual one.
“Most VoIP providers make money by selling outside-network minutes and additional services: calls to anyone within that network are free, but outside calls are charged for at a cheap rate. But Fring doesn’t run the network, it simply provides access to Skype or Google Talk (or both), so when a Skype user calls a non-Skype user, using SkypeOut, they pay Skype, rather than Fring.”
The Register listed three possible revenue streams. One: Fring becomes a mobile phone provider, selling its own minutes. Two: Fring charges for extra services, like voicemail, conference calls, or call forwarding. And three: Fring makes money by reducing the termination fee network operators pay each other when routing calls.
“When a caller from Vodafone calls someone on Orange then Vodafone pays Orange a fee for every minute that call lasts, this is known as the termination fee. Fring will offer a service to Vodafone to intercept those calls and, if the person being called is running a Fring client, route the call over the Fring connection. This means Vodafone doesn’t have to pay any termination fee to Orange, reducing call costs further.”
Us: The last strategy could pay off. Right now, roaming fees are expensive to cellphone users. Hutchinson-3 has made a move to cut them down. Its competitors would like to follow it.
Feb 2, 2007 | By Nuno
- comments
-
-
-
- Stay in sync'
- Full content
- Content tagged VoIP
-
-
-